USB Stick/Drive Problem

[Poromies]

I tried unsuccessfully for several weeks to play home movies from USB on my late 2016 Bravia 55” smart (?)/Android TV. The same USB drive worked perfectly on a small Samsung in a spare bedroom. My USB devices were formatted as FAT32. Movie files were all less than 2Gb and were in formats listed by Sony as acceptable (mostly mp4).
I took my USB device to the retailer where I bought the TV (PC World, Milton Keynes, UK). They could not get my USB device to work with a single Sony TV in their store. Not one. They then tested the same USB device with Samsung and LG TVs which worked perfectly. The store’s Sony “expert” could not offer any advice other than resetting my TV to factory specs; this was meaningless as the Sony TVs in the store had the same problem. I called PC World “help” who, after I had waited for ages, claimed never to have heard of this problem and offered no solution or useful ideas.

I phoned Sony help who said USB devices must be formatted as ExFat.  That was it.  No other comment or help.
I created a new 16Gb USB “stick” formatted as ExFat. That worked!!!!! I then reformated a 2Tb external drive as ExFat. That did not work.  I reformated the 2Tb drive again using the reformat facility in the TV’s settings menu, which created a FAT32 drive, not ExFat as advised by the Sony Help line.  Anyway, after reformatting through the television the external drive worked, but the maximum file size it will accept is around 2Gb, not 4Gb as shown in this Sony video guide. I will next try a 1Tb external drive formatted as ExFat.
The picture and sound quality (through Sony sound bar) are superb, but the USB experience and lack of support has left me seriously underwhelmed by Sony.  A great deal of time-consuming messing around has been required to get my Sony to read USBs. It is pretty frustrating when other TV brands work immediately, and quite frankly unacceptable for a top brand like Sony.  The lack of help is also quite appalling, and the available manuals and YouTube videos appear to be incorrect with respect to drive and media format and size.

Can any Sony experts or fellow Bravia Android users comment or offer any advice on a simple way to play media from USB, and how to overcome file size limitations???????

[Poromies]

Eventually, I was able to get my Sony Bravia to work with a Western Digital 3Tb external drive connected to mains power. I can load movies from that, but it is VERY VERY SLOOOOOOOOOOoooooowwwww. - to the point of being useless. Line you, I am really disappointed that Sony is so poor for playing from USB when my smaller Samsung and old Panasonic in bedrooms work perfectly. Being able to play movies from a USB was one of the main reasons I bought Sony, so it’s failure and lack of support from Sony has been a huge disappointment. The only compensation is that the picture and sound quality (from Sound Bar) are excellent.
I basically gave up connecting USBs to my Sony and now use Apple TV and home sharing to my Mac computer. That works perfectly with better picture quality than USB for some reason.
The USB problem does make me question whether I would buy a Sony TV again in the future.

[85IncTV]

I seem to have similar problems with the USB-memory: 5 TB WD My Passport is connected to KD-85XH9096 for viewing archived images and videos from that memory. Actually the USB-memory contains 23000 images and around 500 videos, distributed into hunderds of sub-categories.

It takes 8 - 10 minutes to read fully the archive directory structure so that I can watch the images. Obviously most of the time is spent creating the small view images in the Sony TV. This approach is stupid. The right should be to show first the structure and thereafter from the selected sub directory to create the view images and to show them, as it works correctly and real time in Windows, LG WebOS and obviously Samsung Tizen. The behaviour is similar with any USB memory model and size.

Additional problem is related to WhatsApp images. Sony can create those small view images, but cannot show the actual WA images.

[Win_88]

Hi @85IncTV

Have you tried a different file explorer (eg. EX File Explorer) or a different Video player (VLC)?

It goes without saying that the TV should be up to date of course: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/lcd-tvs-android-xh90xx_x90xxh_x91xxh_xh92xx-series/kd-85x...

I'm not sure if you're using WA on the TV or if the files are stored on the HDD but can't be accessed on the TV after the fact.

Win_88

[85IncTV]

Those WA images & WA videos include in the archive. I do not have the actual WA in the TV.

I installed the File Explorer and tried to explore the directories and images & videos in the archive.

And a miracle happened: It can browse the directories, images and videos (including WA) in real time.

So, everything works as expected with the File Explorer and Sony could learn from it.

[Win_88]

That's the beauty of Android TV, you're not bound to a specific way of doing things.. I'm glad that worked. I'll raise feedback to Sony about the file explorer.

Don't forget to mark as an accepted solution

Win_88

[btb900]

Hi,

I've just got a Sony TV 43" Bravia, when I put USB stick in it came up with a file PVR and CH103 whatever that is, when I checked the USB in the computer all of what I had saved on the stick has gone??? That's really P****D me off with Sony

[rooobb]

So, trying to guess what you did, you setup your usb drive for recording on your TV and you wish to play this recording on a pc? That's not possible on any TV, since they are encrypted. And you have to repartition the drive if you want to reuse it on a pc 

[thisisbs]

"I believe Support has now been in touch with you regarding this." is a BS answer. It tells nobody anything.

I have the same problem. TV will not see the USB. Have tried ExFat, 16FAT, 32FAT, and NTSF formatted with computer. Can't use TV to format because there is no option to do so. Then USB is connected, drive flashes to indicate it is being accessed, but nothing more. No drive is seen, anywhere, including the Device Control or Device Selection options. I cannot get "Sony Support" because they've DISCONTINUED SUPPORT for my TV so this forum was about my last option.

Take your 1 kudo and put it where the sun don't shine.

I'll let you guess what my opinion about Sony is, regarding ANY future product selection.

[Poromies]

I never resolved the USB problem on my Sony TV, and never received any help from the dealership or Sony.
As that is an important feature to me, which works on other brands of TV, I will not be buying another Sony.

[HannahEd01]

Hi there, why don't you post the model number of your TV and more details about the issue that you're experiencing so others can help?